


Is Anybody Lonely?

by visionaryScribe



Series: 14,000,605 Times Two [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Endgame Time Travel Fix-It, Irondad, Pepperoni, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-01 18:56:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19183714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/visionaryScribe/pseuds/visionaryScribe
Summary: Tony wakes up in 2002 after the final Snap. He doesn’t know whether he’s time traveled or if he’s just seen the future, but either way he’s going to do all he can to prevent it from coming to pass. After all, what Strange saw was just one out of little over 14 million. Surely he can beat those odds and create a second prevailing timeline.





	Is Anybody Lonely?

**Author's Note:**

> Background Information for later works in this series. May be updated as new information is revealed.

Anthony Edward Stark had breathed his last just moments ago. His last sight was that of his wife and his unofficially adopted son. He hadn’t gotten to see Morgan, didn’t want to really. Didn’t want her last memory of him to be like this, burnt and irradiated and dying in a way that was too quick, too final, unable to be reversed. A way that even if he would survive, he’d lose his arm for sure if not more.

 

Pepper and Peter had told him that he’d won. That they had won. Thanos was gone. His armies were dust as Thanos was. Everyone lost had been returned. They had won.

 

All it took was reaching that one in fourteen million chance of winning this cosmic chess game. All it took was for him to make the sacrifice play.

 

Even dying his mind ran a million miles a second and he would’ve barked out a laugh if he could have. Would have cracked that joke himself.

 

He had made his peace. He was ready. His wish, upon his own Snap and statement “I am Ironman.”, had been to protect the stones from Thanos’s grip. Protect them from everyone who would use them for ill intent, and not just the walking purple grapefruit.

 

What he hadn’t been expecting, when his vision blurred and darkened, when his spirit and soul left his body, was to wake up again in a long forgotten yet immediately familiar room. He could have come up with a hundred different expectations for the afterlife. What it was like according to different religions across Earth, what it was like according to different beliefs both in and outside of those religions, even what his own expectation was if asked.

 

He did not expect anything like this. The distant sound of waves and the sun coming in through the windows near the ceiling told him he was back in his lab in Malibu. The light filtering in and the lack of the lights indoors being at full power told him it was daytime, at some point, and the ache in his back and neck told him he had fallen asleep while working. Again.

 

“—It is May 29th, 2002. The weather outside is sunny and is estimated to remain so for the rest of the day…”

 

Jarvis.

 

It was 2002. Sixteen years before Thanos. Eight years before he’d be kidnapped and would need the arc reactor and would see Yinsen die. Nine until he’d be dying from Palladium poisoning. Ten years before the failed Chitauri invasion over New York. Eleven before the Manderin. Before he met Harley. Longer still until he’d meet Peter. God his kids were in diapers or something still, weren’t they?

 

Or were Harley and Peter not even alive yet? Where was Pepper?

 

He’d travelled back in time, not for the first time and it didn’t make any sense at all. Unless this was a parallel timeline altogether, and even then the math that the genius was doing in his head right now didn’t add up. He’d need to run more simulations to even get close and he wasn’t sure if it would be worth it to know. Know whether information from his future’s brain had traveled to the past or whether he, in this timeline, saw the future happen in a vision as real as if he’d lived it all.

 

Tony wasn’t sure which option he’d rather have. Which one he’d rather believe in. He had a second chance now though, a third one technically, to make things right. To make sure the Snap would never happen in the first place. To make sure none of his mistakes in the future would come to pass. He had hope.

 

“Sir?

 

Jarvis sounded worried now, trying to get his attention.

 

“Sir?”

 

“Sorry J. Just thinking. There’s things I need to talk to you about.” Tony wouldn’t dare try to keep anything from Jarvis. Not one of his longest, most faithful friends. Not his family, his son just like the rest of his bots and Friday had also been his children in all the ways that mattered. Karen too, even though she’d been made for Peter. He hadn’t noticed any of this before until Jarvis was gone and Vision stood in his place. Until Friday and Dum-E were the only ones left and he had kept both Friday and Karen restrained in ways he’d never done to Jarvis due to straight up Paranoia with a capital p.

 

“I had the most interesting dream, J, and I have reason to believe that most, if not all of it, will come true if I don’t do something about it.” Tony rambled on, “Of course there are some good things I want to have happen. You ready to hear it?”

 

“For you sir, always.”

 

God, that almost made him want to cry.

 

He didn’t, though. He couldn’t no matter how much he wanted to, no matter how much he wanted to rage that this wasn’t fair. He wanted rest, even if it hadn’t been death exactly, he had wanted to stop fighting. He had wanted to stop needing to fight.

 

Now he was almost two decades into the past. He’d been forty-five, now he was thirty, and there was no way on this planet or any other that he was going to waste these years he has suddenly been given. Not with the knowledge he has now.

 

Tony Stark was on a mission, and God have mercy on any who stood in his way.

  
  
  


That mission started with making sure there were no bugs in his house nor within Jarvis’s code. Then, and only then, Sir told him everything. He didn’t spare any details unless he genuinely didn’t remember it. Which was far and few in between. Those important events that happened had all, in some way, been traumatic and Sir’s brain just loved to remind him of them all down to details that he thought were inconsequential. Or so he claimed. Jarvis was inclined to believe him on this though. He didn’t understand why he believed that Sir had either traveled from the future or had in some way seen it for himself. There had been no outward sign of anything of the sort occurring when the A.I. reviewed the logs of the hours in which Sir had slept.

 

In Sir’s defense, he has pointed out before this that he’s had stranger than usual dreams before. Perhaps this factors in?

 

Jarvis was silent through all of it, taking careful note of everything his creator said as well as how Sir was doing now as he was talking about it. How his eyes got misty at times or his breathing hitched or the pauses where he had to collect himself. How he held himself, the way his shoulders drew in or the way he hunched while standing and the way he opened and closed his fists. How his eyes either fixated on one specific spot or drifted from one thing to another.

 

Jarvis was certain he would need to read up on as much as he could in the coming days. He knew how to react to panic attacks, how to help ease Sir back to reality when waking from a nightmare. It has been like this since the days of M.I.T where Jarvis was still new and he only had DUM-E for an older brother. And then Rhodey came into the picture and he gained an uncle of sorts, as Sir half jokingly said once. And then came his younger sisters, Butterfingers and U.

 

At the end of the recording session Jarvis looked through all the notes he’d taken. The timeline he’d created with this information of events. The expanded family tree because Sir only yesterday, to him, hadn’t been exactly sure what to call Jarvis in terms of family (bouncing from friend to son to nebulous family member) but now there was no mistaking where he stood.

 

Sir viewed him as his son. And if all went right, he could gain three more younger A.I siblings for certain, probably more the way that Sir was planning to change things, and also at least two human younger brothers. Friday and Karen wouldn’t be the same, but neither would Sir. His creator, his father (he was unaccustomed to calling him as such and made a note to have the transition be a gradual process), went through several facial expressions before settling with a sigh.

 

“Sir, there are several courses of action we could take first. I recommend starting on Friday and Karen’s codes, as they both could help us with tasks later on. Jocasta will also be beneficial, especially if given more time to exist and learn while not presiding over a space station with several of your armors under her jurisdiction. As Tadashi never came online, I cannot know what benefits there would be in waking him aside from preventing work pile up, nor any less than ideal consequences.”

 

Sir laughed, “I think you’re just eager to gain more siblings, J.”

 

“Well, Sir.” Jarvis paused recalling that doing so could be done in conversation for dramatic effect, “You’re not wrong.” After a moment he added, “It would also be beneficial to your wellbeing that Mr. Keener and Mr. Parker are, perhaps passively, monitored. Only keeping a closer eye when trouble arises. For them or yourself, Sir.”

 

Now Sir has an amused expression, his posture relaxing as Jarvis speaks, “And how would this be beneficial to my wellbeing?”

 

“I have not read up on as much psychology as I now am aware I should, but ever since Mr. Rhodes, Ms. Potts, and Mr. Hogan entered your life and gained your trust you have wanted to know where and how they are whenever something big comes up, be it the military, your company, or the media, that is going to affect you or them. I feel it prudent since you seem so attached to these two unofficial future siblings of mine to make sure they stay alive and in good health…” Jarvis pauses here for a few seconds as he runs through what form of address he could use for them with their future roles in mind, “Peter is currently two years old and Harley is fifteen months old. They appear to be, if they were blood related, what would be referred to as Irish Twins.”

 

“Aww you’re using their first names.”

 

“I use the names of my other siblings. I do not see a reason to not use theirs.”

 

“Well. There’s no time like the present.” Sir, or Father? He shall stick with Sir for now. Sir stretched, preparing to start on Friday’s code no doubt, but by Jarvis’s calculations he has not eaten yet.

 

“Sir, may I suggest you eat something? It would not do you well to go without eating for too long and you are approaching thirty hours without proper nutrition. Nor have you been keeping yourself hydrated in that time as well.”

 

“It’s fine J, I’ll only be doing a couple hours of work for now before I eat.” That’s how it usually starts before those hours come and go and fly out the window.

 

“I must insist, Sir. Your blood sugar is rather low and though the five hours you’ve slept will help—“

 

“Where is Pepper, Rodney, and Happy right now, J?”

 

“Ms. Potts has been doing paperwork for the last two hours and will have some for you to sign off on or not once she’s done. Mr. Rhodes said yesterday that he would be on a mission this week but has not specified what it is about or where he is going. Classified information. Mr. Hogan you gave the day off today and is presumed to be with his sister and her family today as he spoke of visiting them this week. I could go through the internet to check and verify their statuses if you would like.”

 

Sir waves it off, “Nah. How long has Pep been here?”

 

“She has been in the building as of two hours and ten minutes ago... with the explanation that doing the paperwork here would make it easier and faster for when she has to inevitably show it to you which has a thirty three percent chance of you complying to sign them yourself and a twelve percent chance of you signing off on all of them.”

 

“She tell you to tell me that?”

 

“That she did, Sir.”

  
  
  


Tony’s first course of action after restarting on Friday and Karen’s base codes, which he did have memorized and really wouldn’t take him long to finish, was to start on schematics and designs for medical and green energy technology. He was already making plans on how to do things differently this time. He’s still debating over whether or not to go through with the Jericho, to go through Afghanistan all over again, but that may not be something he could change, or should as the case may be.

 

For now, his plan for the nearest big event in his life was a simple one. Make Stark Industries into a medical and technological powerhouse that dwarfed it's own weapons department so that, if and when the Jericho demonstration turned sideways and the Ten Rings kidnapped him, shutting down the weapons and recalling all of them that his company won't have as large of a stock drop as it had before. Tony’s goal was to cut the almost fifty percent drop in half at least.

 

Once that was over, the genius would in theory already have plans in place for everything else, if he wasn’t carrying them out by that time. Obi would be a blip on the radar. His press conferences he didn’t plan on changing too much, even if he didn’t remember what he said word for word he’s sure it won’t be too drastic a change. He had to nip the palladium poisoning in the bud somehow and make sure Pep and Rhodey know about it this time.

 

There was a lot to do and that isn’t even a fourth of all of it.

 

“Tony?” Oh. There was Pepper. Tony has turned, had seen her and it was all he could do to not let the tears well up in his eyes. He held them back and forced his voice to keep being level and steady. It had been a minor miracle that Jarvis had believed him, that his firstborn A.I. son had been on board with not only recording all the information he could remember, but his plans of action to fix things so far.

 

Pepper was not at all guaranteed to take the news well. He won’t hide that he’s keeping something from her if she asks, but he can’t very well give her a proper explanation without having one himself. All he had to go on right now was ‘really damn vivid vision of the future’ and even then. Even then he wasn’t sure.

 

But Pepper and Rhodey, he’d surely let them know, would be the next to know, the first of anyone else. They didn’t deserve to be caught up in all his mess, and he knew that half of his and Pepper’s rocky relationship had been due to Ironman and throwing himself recklessly into danger. Into trying to protect and save and not waste his life but Pepper hadn’t cared about that. He knew that now. She had only wanted him for who he was and not the Tony that was trying so damn hard to get people to like him. To make up for what he felt had been his fault. To, to be a hero.

 

He didn’t need to be all of that, for her.

 

But that was who he was, now. He can’t just stand by and not help. But things don’t have to be like they were before. He didn’t feel the pressing need to go out there and do it all by himself. He could remake the Iron Legion. He could send some with Rhodey, give him War Machine. He could help by his plan to expand and improve on the medical and telecommunications industries, give them better tools and new avenues to work in fields that had previously gone undeveloped. Like B.A.R.F. Wow, he needed to come up with a better name for that.

 

“Tony?”

 

“Oh right. Right. Hi, Pep.” He could hear the budding concern in her tone and even see it in the way her eyebrows furrowed together as she was thinking about something.

 

He knew her too well and she didn’t know him, this him, at all. It wasn’t fair and he wanted to change that sooner rather than later.

 

“You’ve been down here in your lab for three days straight.”

 

“Yep.” And he was feeling the effects of it right now. His little power nap hadn’t done much to keep him going for more than a few hours and if that over a decade long vision was anything to go by, he needed to take better care of himself. Maybe cut down his inventing binges to a full day and no more, if he really felt the need.

  


The look on Tony’s face when he turned toward her had been haunted. Someone in pain and mourning. It had shake. Pepper to see it, but just as Tony quickly covered it up and plastered on a smile for her, so did she act like nothing was amiss. He had simply gone on one of his inventing binges, he told her then, thought up ideas up ideas for things like prosthetics and wireless communication that he hadn’t been able to shake until he started designing and building them. While that wasn’t unusual for him, what was unusual was his enthusiasm and new-found interest in expanding beyond the weapons business with a seriousness she hadn’t seen before in him. In the span of about a minute Pepper had seen in him deep sadness, something boarding excitement like a child on Christmas, and now a fire in his eyes that was unyielding.

 

Pepper found she didn’t want him to. In fact, she found herself getting excited right along with him. What else could they do? Even if these things he was making started out for the military and veterans, would it be possible to bring them into the civilian market?

 

“You read my mind, Pep.”

 

He spoke the nickname with such ease, Pepper almost, almost didn’t care that he hadn’t once called her that before today. It had always been Pepper or Ms.Potts, depending on the situation.

 

She was so not going to leave this alone. This was more than just a three day binge and she would get to the bottom of it. Likely with Rhodey’s help. For now though, she’d play along as if Tony’s personality hadn’t spun a complete one-eighty.

 

“So, Mr.Stark. What’s the plan?”

  


> “Billionaire and Stark Industries CEO Tony Stark has just announced at a press conference that he will be ‘broadening the horizons’ for his company. He claims that, as there is more to war than just weapons and ‘who has the biggest stick’, that his company should follow that sentiment. He says he has plans for introducing a medical technology department soon to be followed by a telecommunications technology department later on this year…”
> 
>   
> 
> 
> “Tony Stark has stated in a press conference this past weekend that he plans to take Stark Industries in new directions. Many have asked why the sudden change and more importantly why now. To that he had this to say: “I’m done living in a state of zero accountability. I’m done living up to a reputation that I’ve earned while I was grieving for the deaths of my parents. I want to be known as something more than, something other than just an eccentric, playboy narcissist. I want to leave a legacy behind that is more than just guns and missiles and a body count. While Stark Industries has built its fortune on weapons and military contracts, and while I do support our military and our veterans, it doesn't have to only be weapons. It shouldn’t only be weapons. The military is more than it's guns, so why not have SI be more than the weapons we produce?”

 

> “Tony Stark, in an interview two days ago, when asked about specifics in the departments he wants to expand on and the products he plans to have his company produce, looked almost excited. I think we all tend to forget how even though he is the CEO of a company, he is also the inventor behind all of their new and innovative ideas. He went on to say that he plans for prosthetics, for military, for retired veterans, and once he can get the price to something affordable for anyone and everyone else who needs them. He says this is just the beginning, that he has more plans, hinted at better armor and more secure wireless communication. It’s truly amazing how much of a turn around Tony Stark has had in the last few days and I’m sure that everyone can agree that we hope this change is here to stay.”


End file.
